Colbert's cancellation: A ratings crisis or a political bribe? We investigate

USA Today

4 days ago

Cue the late-night autopsy.
Since Stephen Colbert's announcement last week that CBS would discontinue the "Late Show" and, as a result, his hosting gig, viewers and industry insiders alike have been quick to offer dueling explanations for the shocking shift.
In one version, Paramount, CBS' parent company, is bending a knee to President Donald Trump, ousting his frequent critic Colbert to help appease an administration they hope will approve a major merger with Skydance Media before the FCC.
In another, Paramount is reading the writing on the wall, as late-night and network television writ large struggle to keep up with streaming. Audiences, after all, seem more eager to hear celebrities spill on podcasts or short-form social media video series than the stuffy, scripted format of an interview show.
We ran the numbers on the latter theory, and here's what we found.
While Colbert's show is the top rated at 11:30 p.m. ET/PT, it was losing a reported $40 million a year, so Paramount's "purely financial" explanation for the cancellation is at least partly true. Network TV has been receding from the spotlight for nearly a decade, as streaming continues to balloon.
As late-night TV becomes more expensive and less profitable every year, ratings sink and costs go up, presenting for the genre an apocalyptic financial bind. YouTube clips may be viral, but they don't make up for the revenue lost as live viewership declines. Colbert, also was perhaps the least-viral of his peers, with hosts like NBC's Jimmy Fallon or ABC's Jimmy Kimmel pushing out more click-happy material to YouTube and social media.
Still, Colbert claimed the largest number of viewers. Nielsen ratings show "Late Show" leading the pack so far in 2025 in the 11:35 p.m. hour, with an average of 2.4 million viewers for the first six months of 2025, down from 2.8 million for all of 2022. ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" and NBC's "Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon" were far behind in that metric, averaging 1.8 million (down from 1.6 million for the full year 2022) and 1.2 million (down from 1.5 million), respectively. Kimmel is replaced by guest hosts during the summer.
Despite Colbert's dominance over his peers, his ratings have dropped steadily year over year. The fact that he has the biggest slice of the pie may then be moot, as the pie as a whole continues to shrink. Notably, "Gutfeld!" Fox News' raunchy, right-wing late-night show hosted by comedian Greg Gutfeld is now the number one show during wee-hours, seeing the rare ratings increase while his left-leaning peers on the other major networks continue to slide.
The political juxtaposition may throw a bone to the other side, signaling a different political mood among network television audiences during Trump's second term. Regardless, Colbert's cancellation offers a canary in the coal mine of old-school TV programming – should CBS have had either the political or financial will to keep the "Late Show" on the air, it would have needed to shake up the format eventually, or dramatically cut costs.
Back in 2014, Netflix only had three original series. Now the streaming bundling universe has eaten up much of entertainment. No one can predict what TV will look like 10 years from now. But if Seth Meyers, Jon Stewart, the Jimmys, or any other late-night host wants to go for longevity, they'll have to evolve.
Contributing: Kelly Lawler